ELSA
C. RIOS-OLAH lived for many years on North 9th Street near Birch
Street in North Camden. A graduate of Rutgers University, she worked as
a certified bilingual
social worker with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
from 1994 to 2002.

Mrs.
Olah fell victim to the epidemic of drug- and gang-related violence that
had plagued North Camden for well over four decades when she was hit by
a stray bullet outside her home on February 28, 2004. She died at Cooper
Hospital two days later. Her killer, an 18-year-old male who lived
nearby, was quickly arrested.

Elsa
Olah is seen holding her grandson, Paul, and with her daughter, Gizella,
and son, Paul, in this family photograph.

Elsa
Olah refused to give up on her North Camden neighborhood. Despite pleas
from her two children who had become increasingly concerned about
violence, Olah would not leave the tidy white-brick row-house she called
home for 20 years. Now Olah's children say their mother's faith in her
community helped get her killed.

Olah,
a 62-year-old social worker, died Monday from a stomach wound she
sustained as she was getting into her car about noon Saturday near her
home in the 500 block of North 9th Street. Her neighbor - Abismael
Arroyo, 18 - intended to shoot another person when a stray bullet struck
Olah as she approached her red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, authorities said.

"She
wouldn't leave the neighborhood. She said just because these people are
poor, they're not bad. Now look what happened," said Gizella Olah,
the victim's daughter. "My mother helped a lot of people. She would
open her door to anyone."

Arroyo
is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a handgun for an
unlawful purpose, authorities said. He is expected to be charged with
Elsa Olah's murder, the 10th in the city this year. He was sent to
Camden County Jail on $100,000 bail. The shooting remains under
investigation, Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said.

Seconds
after the gunfire erupted, Olah's son, Paul, lifted his mother into his
arms and rushed her to Cooper University Hospital.

"She
was conscious. She told me she was shot," said Paul Olah, a
34-year-old father of two boys.

He
received a call early Monday from doctors at Cooper, who told him to get
there as quickly as he could. His mother's heart had stopped beating and
she had been put on life support. She began breathing on her own again
17 minutes later, but she could not pull through. Her family arrived
just in time to watch her slip away. She was pronounced dead at 2:44
a.m.

"I
think they just revived her so we could say goodbye," said Paul Olah, his eyes welling with tears.

Elsa
Olah, a Rutgers University graduate, worked as a certified bilingual
social worker with the state Department of Health and Senior Services
from 1994 to 2002, according to the New Jersey Department of Personnel.
She always had her neighborhood's best interests at heart, said Lillian
Santiago, a North Camden activist.

"She
was just a really good person," said Santiago, 61. "She was
real concerned with the way things were going around here."

What
happened three days ago is another sign that things aren't going well,
Olah's relatives and friends say. Because of that, there's no use
directing all the anger at Arroyo,
Paul Olah said.

"This
just didn't start with this kid, it's this atmosphere, this area,"
he said, standing on his front porch and motioning to the bustling
neighborhood around him. "It started with his parents and his
family. I just want him to be prosecuted to the fullest," he
added. "My children don't have a grandmother no more, and I don't
have a mother."

Camden
Courier-Post

March
2, 2004

Camden
Courier-Post - Wednesday, March 3, 2004

MAN HELD IN FATAL SHOOTINGCamden Woman's Family Faces Slaying Suspect For First
Time

By RENEE WINKLERCourier-Post Staff

The
family of a social worker killed by a stray bullet outside her North Camden
home faced the suspect in her killing Tuesday in a Camden courtroom.
Relatives of Elsa Olah remained composed both before and after the brief
arraignment of 18-year-old Abismael
Arroyo. They sobbed moments before the
husky teenager walked into the courtroom of Superior Court Presiding
Criminal Judge Linda G. Baxter.

"I
just looked at his face," said Paul Olah, who lifted his mother from
the street after she was shot just before noon Saturday, put her in his car,
and sped with her to Cooper University Hospital. "I thought, I'm
looking at the person who killed my mother. He wouldn't even look at
me."

Assistant
Camden County Prosecutor James Conley said Elsa Olah, 62, was walking from
her own car when Arroyo, her neighbor in the 500 block of North 9th Street,
fired a series of shots at a passing car. No motive was set for the gunfire.
Olah walked into the line of fire, Conley said. Struck once, she died Monday
from a stomach wound. Arroyo is being held in Camden County Jail, unable to
post $350,000 bail. Arroyo's mother was among those who identified him as
the shooter, Conley told Baxter.

Ironically,
Elsa Olah resisted her children's efforts to persuade her to move to a safer
community, Paul Olah said.

"She
always told us she had what she needed right there, and she didn't need
much," he said. His mother sent visitors home with leftovers from every
family meal, he said. "If you said you liked her earrings, she'd give
them to you," said Paul Olah, describing his mother as a beautiful
woman.

Elsa
Olah loved the people in her neighborhood, said her sister Marie Rivera.
Elsa Olah had been a community service officer with the Division of
Addiction Services of the state's Department of Health and Human Services.
When the grief subsides, it is her optimism that will remain with her
family, neighbors and co-workers, Paul Olah said.

"She went beyond
thinking her glass was half-full. She would say, `Look, look how much I
have!'. "I wish I could have danced with her one more time,
laughed with her one more time," Paul Olah
said.

Camden
Courier-Post - Wednesday, March 3, 2004

OLAH-RIOS,
ELSA C.On March 1, 2004 of
Camden, NJ. Age 62. Beloved wife of Angel Rios, devoted mother of
Paul Olah and Gizella Olah, three grand-children, Cella, Paul and
Christopher. Loving daughter of Carmen Engelman, one brother Felix,
two sisters, Francesca Cruz and Maria Rivera-Brown, and a host of
family and friends.
In lieu of flowers the family request donations to be sent to
Guadalupe Family Services, 509 State Street, Camden, NJ 08102, in
memory of Elsa C. Olah. A period of meditation will be held
Saturday, March 6th from 3pm to 5pm. Commendation Services at 5pm at
St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Broadway and Royden Streets,
Camden, NJ.

Camden
Courier-Post - Wednesday, March 29, 2004

VIGIL
HELD FOR SLAIN WOMAN
Marchers in Camden Honor Social Worker Elsa Olah

By JASON LAUGHLIN

A small band of family and city
activists marched Sunday in memory of a social worker killed by a
stray bullet last month in her North Camden neighborhood.

One of the readings at the brief
candlelight vigil in front of Elsa Olah's 9th Street home seemed to
capture her life. It was a quote from Mother Teresa.

"The good you do today will be
forgotten tomorrow," Mother Teresa wrote. "Do good
anyway."

Olah, 62, worked tirelessly to help
Puerto Rican children learn English, fed the homeless who wandered
her neighborhood and helped young people in Camden write college
resumes. All that was on her own time, outside of
her job as a social worker with the state Department of Health and
Senior Services, a job for which she earned statewide acclaim.

"She didn't just do for the
community," said her son, Paul Olah, 34, of Collingswood.
"She did for the entire state."

Yet fewer than 20 people attended the
Sunday afternoon event honoring her generosity. Most were her relatives and staff from
Holy Name Church, which organized the event. A smattering of neighbors joined the
short march, which began at 7th and State streets and continued to
Olah's home a few blocks away. Neighborhood residents watched the group
march past and some said they knew Olah, but few accepted
invitations to join in the vigil. Instead they watched from a
distance.

The event had been rescheduled twice,
leading to difficulty getting attendance, organizers said. Sister Helen Cole, one of the vigil's
organizers, said the enormous number of cards and letters the church
received after Olah's death better expressed the esteem Olah
enjoyed. She admitted, however, that the low
turnout was disappointing, noting the people of North Camden may be
too accustomed to death.

"I think people are used to
it," she said. "Nobody deserved to die a violent
death."

Olah was killed as she got into her car
on Feb. 28. She was struck by one of several bullets fired at a
passing vehicle. Her neighbor - Abismael Arroyo, 18 - is
charged with murder and weapons offenses. He is awaiting trial.

Fatal shots have rung out in that
neighborhood since then. Joel Torres, 25, of Pennsauken was shot
by state police March 23 in the 600 block of State Street. Torres tried to rob two plainclothes
officers at gunpoint, authorities said, though Torres' family
contends he was not a troublemaker. The shooting is under
investigation.

Olah's family had long pressed her to
move out of North Camden, but she refused to abandon her
neighborhood. Paul Olah and his family are still
reeling from their loss.

"It's rough for me, it's still
surreal," he said. "The other day I almost called her at
work."

The family hopes to establish a
foundation that will continue Elsa Olah's charitable work, he said. At the end of the vigil, Olah's family
and friends lighted candles and sang.

"This little light of mine, I'm
going to let it shine," they sang as a brisk breeze blew out
one candle after another. They cupped the little flames with their
hands, trying to protect the remaining flickers as they sang,
"Shine all over Camden, I'm gonna let it shine."

Camden
Courier-Post - Wednesday, March 29, 2004

Click
on Image to Enlarge

Camden
Courier-Post - Saturday, July 16, 2005

Teen gets 18-year term for slayingElsa Olah was shot as she was unloading groceries

By RENEE WINKLER

A
Camden teenager who fatally shot a woman who had spent her life working
to improve the lives of people in the city was sentenced Friday to 18
years in state prison.

Abismael
Arroyo, 19, who had pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, will not
be eligible for parole until 2018 under the sentence of Superior Court
Judge Irvin Snyder. Arroyo, who had been firing a handgun at a car
carrying people who had thrown rocks at his home, made no comment during
the hearing, although relatives of victim Elsa Olah were present.

"The
tragedies, the gunfire in the city continues. This leaves two families
crying," Arroyo's defense attorney Jaime Kaigh said after the
sentencing.

Paul
Olah of Collingswood, the son of the shooting victim, and his wife,
Christy, said they had little hope that Arroyo's time in prison would
change him into a law-abiding man.

Paul
Olah said that he and his 62-year-old mother, shot as she unloaded
groceries from her car in the 500 block of North 9th Street on Feb. 28,
2004, often were companions on car trips.

"But
the one trip that will last forever in my mind is the final trip we took
together" as he drove her to the hospital, he said. Less than two
days later, Olah said, he gave doctors the order to terminate life
support. Elsa Olah had been a community service officer with the
Division of Addiction Services with the state's Department of Health and
Human Services.

"My
mother's murder affected four generations of our family. I have gone
from seeing her on a daily basis to never, ever, seeing her again,"
he said.

"Part
of what makes us who we are and how we grow are the people that are
around us and who we have experiences with. One of the greatest teachers
I have had in life was my mother, and my children should be experiencing
the love and love of living she had."

Christy
Olah, who spoke to her mother-in-law daily, said it's small things that
remind her of the loss she feels, things like hearing her
mother-in-law's keys jingling or the smell of her perfume.

Six
hours after family members decided to terminate Elsa Olah's life
support, they went to Arroyo's arraignment on a murder charge.

"He
showed up in the court with Not Guilty written on (the back of) his
shirt," she said.

Many
would lay the blame for Ms. Olah's death at the feet of the Federal
government, Capitalism, "corporate America", and other
interests and parties outside of the city. To my mind, if there is
blame beyond the shooter, it can only be placed on the agency that
has profited the most by the poverty and ignorance that has plagued
Camden these many years, and that sole party is the city's Regular
Democratic Organization- the only organization with a vested
interest in preserving the status quo in the city, the only
organization threatened by an informed, educated, and economically
independent electorate.